The Dog Days are Just Beginning
by SeeminglyCaptivating
Summary: Keith's annoyance at Lance causes him to start ranting to his wolf about how absolutely frustrating Lance is...and...how...pretty his eyes are...unfortunately for him Cosmo is listening closer than he realizes and has some pretty neat teleportation powers at his disposal. (AKA when Cosmo the wolf ships Klance even harder than you do) FLUFF!


**A/N** : When this idea popped into my head I couldn't not write it. I haven't seen anyone else take advantage of Cosmo's teleportation powers and it's an absolute travesty! What's the point of a teleporting wolf if it's not to make incredibly weird and insane scenarios happen? Holla!

So enjoy the fun and shenanigans!

* * *

"Lance is just driving me crazy!" Keith yelled, laying back on his bed. He looked over to his side where Cosmo sat patiently, wagging his tail.

He cocked his head to the side at Keith, unable to say anything, just gave him a look that Keith could imagine said, 'I am confused.'

"I know you can't talk, it just makes me feel better." He leaned over to give Cosmo some gentle scratches behind the ear.

Cosmo leaned into his hand so he could scratch harder.

Keith sighed, frustrated. "I just really want the team to get along. I don't know what happened. I left and when I got back everything was different. Maybe I'm just different! You can't disappear in space for years and expect to come out of that the same person. I just wish. He. Wasn't. So. Infuriating!"

With each word Keith scratched a little harder, Cosmo didn't seem to mind, though. He wagged his tail harder. Keith slid off the bed and hugged his space wolf.

He next spoke in a silly babyish tone that he would never admit to anyone else he used. "What do you think, boy? Is Lance the most annoying paladin on the planet? Huh?"

All of a sudden, with a cracking sound, the floor under Keith's feet disappeared. It took a moment to register what had happened. Cosmo had transported him somewhere else. It took another moment to register just where he was…floating in the air…in Lance's bedroom…six feet above where Lance was currently reading a book.

"Aaaagh!" Keith yelled, trying to grasp at Cosmo, but the wolf disappeared right under Keith's fingertips with another crack.

Lance looked up, suddenly startled and confused, right as Keith started to fall directly on top of him.

Keith's forehead slammed into Lance's chin. Lance's knee smashed into Keith's stomach. Keith's elbow came down hard on Lance's chest.

They ended up a tangled mess of bodies, both winded and gasping for breath, both trying to stand up and crawl off each other, and both failing miserably.

"Keith!" Lance yelled, rubbing his jaw. "What. The. Quiznak!"

"Cosmo." Was all Keith could say between shaky breaths. The side that had smacked into Lance's knee was in agony. He felt a sharp pain with each intake of breath, like he had cracked a rib when he fell.

"What did I ever do to your dog to deserve this?!"

Finally Keith rolled off of Lance and on to the floor. He was in too much pain to stand. "I don't know." He had another shaky intake of breath. "I don't know why—"

Suddenly Lance started to laugh. He still rubbed his jaw where Keith's face had rammed into it, but his laughter began to build until he threw his head back in mirth.

"This isn't funny." Keith said, beginning to chuckle despite himself. Each shallow laugh was met with a sharp pain. "We really could have hurt each other."

Lance continued to laugh, tears springing into his eyes. "What do you mean? This is the most ridiculous thing to ever happen to me and I've spent the past few years living in a floating castle piloted by magic while piloting a half sentient lion!"

"What's so funny about it, then?" Keith said in between his own painful laughs.

"I've just never had a guy fall so hard for me."

Keith immediately cut off his own laughter. "Really Lance? Really?"

"Come on, Keith! Come on! That was funny!" Lance wiped the tears out of his eyes.

Keith shook his head, rolling his eyes as he did so. Just what he should expect from Lance. "I'm not gonna laugh at your bad puns."

As Lance met Keith's eyes his laughter cut off mid-laugh. Keith was surprised by the serious look that overcame Lance's face all of a sudden. Lance slid off the bed onto the floor next to Keith. He dropped the book that was still in his hands: Star Lores: Lords of the Pith. Keith watched it fall.

"Keith, you're bleeding."

Lance pulled his shirt over his shoulders, ducking his head to pull it through the hole. He looked at the white fabric in his hands for a moment, before beginning to pull.

Keith moved to protest as he tore of a strip, but Lance ignored him, shredding the t-shirt with ease. He began dabbing the white fabric above Keith's eye, gently.

"It's not too bad, it's just a nick above your eyebrow. It doesn't even look that deep."

Lance ripped another strip off of his t-shirt, this time holding it above Keith's eye.

"Hold that there until we can get to a healing pod."

"Okay." Keith said, lifting his hand to Lance's so that he could take over pressure. The touch made Lance jump slightly, but he held his hand there for another second before finally pulling away and leaving the rest to Keith.

"Let me grab another shirt and we can leave."

Keith watched him as he searched through his closet. He couldn't help but admire the sinewy muscles of his back and torso as he waited. Lance had always been slender, but he was almost as avid at training as Keith was, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise that under all that armor Lance had muscles. And yet, there Keith was, completely surprised.

As Lance pulled another shirt over his torso and began to walk toward Keith, Keith spoke. "You know you could have just grabbed a paper towel of something, you didn't have to use your own shirt."

Lance stiffened, stopping mid stride. "I didn't want you bleeding all over my carpet. It's nice." He looked away from Keith before offering him his hand to help him up.

"Well, thanks, I guess." Keith said awkwardly. He didn't know what else to say to Lance. He did appreciate the sudden 180 degree personality change from laughing at Keith to suddenly helping him. Keith just didn't know how to emphasize that. Everything he said always seemed to come out wrong.

Keith grabbed Lance's hand, helping himself stand up. As soon as he had solid footing, Lance dropped his hand back to his side.

"Come on, let's go."

Keith awoke from the healing pod alone.

It had been only a couple of hours since he entered, there hadn't been too much to heal, but it still took time. His rib felt better. He no longer had a sharp pain every time he inhaled. Keith rubbed his forehead, feeling for the spot where he had been cut, and was relieved when he didn't find it.

He stepped out of the healing pod carefully, not wanting to trip. The first thing he was gonna do was to go find Cosmo and give him a piece of his mind. He didn't know what the quiznacking wolf was thinking, warping him into a room six feet above someone else.

Although, Keith had to admit, it might be good if he ever needed to ambush someone. He pushed the thought aside, letting his anger rise and get the better of him. He slid into the common area fuming.

Hunk and Pidge looked up at him, surprised by his sudden appearance.

"Have either of you seen Cosmo?"

As if on queue, Cosmo popped his head up from the couch next to them.

"I'm gonna kill you." Keith said, rushing at his own dog.

"Nooo!" Hunk said, grabbing Keith's arm before he could reach his dog. "Cosmo's a good boy, I'm sure he didn't mean it! Whatever it was!"

Pidge ran over to squish Cosmo's face, showing Keith. "Look at this faaace! He'd never hurt a fly!"

Keith just shook his head at his wolf, a scowl on his face. "You're dead."

"Nooooo!" Hunk said weakly, still holding Keith back.

In a flash Cosmo teleported. Keith felt him appear next to his leg and then once again, with a loud crack, he felt himself move through the planes of existence. This time his feet touched down on soft matting, but without Hunk to hold him back he stumbled forward too fast for him to stop, directly into Lance.

Lance shrieked, dropping the sword in his hand before Keith was on top of him once again.

"Holy quiznak! Keith! I almost stabbed you."

"Sorry!" Keith tried to pull himself up. Fortunately this time he hadn't injured himself in the fall.

"Do you want to spend your entire day in the healing pod?" Lance, propped himself up on his elbows to stare at Keith, aghast.

"It was an accident!"

"Just what exactly did you do to that poor dog to make him try to torture us both?!"

"He's a wolf, not a dog!" Keith yelled, exasperated. "And I didn't do anything to him! I only threatened him a little!"

"A little?!"

"I was mad! It was in the moment!" Keith threw up his hands in frustration.

"You can't threaten a dog!" It was lance's turn to flail his hands about. "He's a dog!"

"He's a wolf!"

"Keith…" Lance was trying to have a calm voice, but the anger was apparent in his face. "Will you please apologize to your quiznacking dog before he kills us both."

Keith's bared his teeth. "The next time I get my hands on—"

"Keith." Lance warned.

"Fine! The next time I see Cosmo I will give him the most sincere of apologies. Happy?"

"Not particularly, but it'll have to do."

They sat next to each other on the mats for a second, neither one moving. Lance pinched the bridge of his nose and began rubbing it. Keith took a second to realize just where they were, the new training deck at the Garrison. They'd made a private one just for the paladins and crew of the Atlas. For the moment though, they were alone.

"What were you doing here, anyway Lance?"

Lance dropped his hand, giving Keith a glare. "I was training…obviously."

Keith rolled his eyes. "I realize that. I meant why are you using a sword?"

The hands returned to Lance's face, this time running soothing circles on his temples. "Are you seriously telling me that we've been training together since you got back, been in several battles, fought a whole bunch of Galra, and you've never noticed that my bayard can turn into a sword?"

Keith sighed, annoyed. "No. I knew that you had a sword weapon. I've just never seen you actually use it."

"That's because I'm still figuring out how to use it, Keith. I'm not gonna take a weapon I barely understand into battle. I haven't studied the blade like you have, Keith."

Keith licked his lips, thinking. "Okay, show me."

"What?"

"Show me." Keith stood up from the floor, stretching out his muscles briefly, before moving to help Lance up. "Show me what you can do with your sword. If anyone can help you get better, it's me."

Lance grabbed his hand bitterly and scrambled to his feet. "I'm still practicing."

"What are you—scared?" Keith twitched an eyebrow and smiled, knowing that it would incite Lance's idea of a rivalry.

"Go get changed into your armor. I'm gonna wipe that smirk off of your face."

"You can go ahead and try." Keith said, walking away to the locker rooms. "It's not gonna happen."

When Keith came back in his full paladin armor, Lance was ready and waiting.

"Are you so eager for a beat down, sharpshooter?" Keith said, teasing.

"You're gonna regret teasing me, samurai."

Keith readied himself in the ring, standing in a basic stance, waiting for Lance to come at him. He took out his bayard and brought it to life in his hands. Then, taking a deep breath to focus himself, he nodded at Lance.

Lance pounced, with a speed that surprised Keith, but his form was sloppy. He had left himself wide open already, and it was only the first move. Keith grabbed Lance's sword arm with his free hand and pulled down, before gently elbowing Lance in the face.

"Not quite, sharpshooter. Try again."

Lance frowned, backing up back to his original position, thinking.

The next charge was sudden, but Keith was prepared. Lance raised his blade and swung several times in quick succession. Keith parried the blows easily. Lance's movements were too slow and his arcs were too wide.

"Make your slashes closer to your body and speed up your movements. You're too easy to read." Keith said, as he forced Lance backward.

Lance grunted, but said nothing.

Keith reset himself. This time Lance's blows came faster. Keith couldn't spot them as easily, but he still managed to parry them. Lance came down too hard on one blow, and Keith ducked out of the way, using Lance's downward force against him. Lance ended up skittering across the floor face first.

"That was better. Your attacks were harder to see, but you need to work on your balance. Use your free hand as a counter." Keith said, resetting once again, but giving Lance a moment to stand up.

Lance rubbed his face where it had hit the mats underneath them. He stood up slowly before getting back into a fighting stance. This time he seemed more cautious.

Lance didn't rush at him, so Keith took it upon himself to attack first. He stepped forward quickly, and slashed at Lance's left shoulder. Lance was slower to block than he should have been, but was still able to parry Keith's blow. Keith attacked again, quickly on the right side where Lance had left himself open.

Lance's broadsword just made it in time to block, but the block wasn't strong enough and Keith's sword slammed into Lance's shoulder.

"Aaagh." Lance grunted again, backing up once more.

"You're thinking only one move at a time. Think about what your opponent's doing, and what they might do next. Sword fighting is about figuring out your enemy as quickly as you can. If you're going to do it in battle, you need a lot more than decent aim."

Lance's nostrils flared. Keith hadn't meant that line as an insult to Lance's sharpshooting, but it had come off as one all the same.

Lance was the first to attack once again. This time he moved with more force behind his blows, allowing his movements to be slow again. Keith could keep up, but one of the slashes pushed him hard enough to make him jump backward.

"Good." Keith said. "Now lower your center of gravity. You're too rigid and it's slowing you down. Straight swords like mine require rigidity to make clean attacks, but a broadsword is a more flowing weapon. It's meant to be more versatile."

Lance reset again, nodding. Keith could feel himself working up a sweat. This time when Lance attacked he did so lower to the ground. His blows felt better timed with his feet. The slashes starting all the way from his heel and moving fluidly upwards into his sword. Keith parried, now on guard. Lance was getting better a lot faster than Keith would have expected.

He'd certainly been practicing.

Lance sliced through the air. A loud clank of metal on metal greeted their ears once...twice...three times. Keith attacked forward, and Lance stepped back, meeting his sword again.

"Good." Keith said, charging forward once more. "Good."

With each swing where their blades met Keith could feel his and Lance's rhythm getting closer to what it was from before Keith left. Now that their blades were meeting, more so than Keith knocking Lance to the floor, they had both started to sweat.

"I'm going to speed up. Keep up with me." Keith said, already beginning to pant. He wanted to challenge Lance though, to really see just what he was capable of.

"I will." Lance said. His brow was furrowed in focus. He was putting every effort in to try and spot a weakness in Keith's defenses.

Keith knew this was a moot point. There was no way Lance would be able to knock him down, not with such limited experience. Maybe one day. But sparing with an actual person was infinitely better than sparring with a robot, and Keith appreciated Lance for that at the very least.

Keith kept a tempo in his head as he slashed forward. He began to pick up the pace, just a little. He was watching Lance carefully, wanting to see just when he would lose the ability to keep up. He was fast though, had always been fast, he'd have to be whether he was keeping up with shooting down enemies from afar, or slashing them down from up close. Speed was a necessity in their line of work.

Keith stabbed forward, making Lance lose balance for a second, but Lance was too quick for Keith to send him skittering to the floor once more.

Once Lance had regained his footing, he met Keith's blade again.

Keith sped his movements up even more. He watched as sweat began to drip down Lance's jawline. They were both breathing hard at that point. Lance wiped some sweat away before it could reach his eyes and become a distraction.

An image flashed into Keith's mind of Lance shirtless from before, but this time covered in sweat and panting red in the face. Keith's blade faltered for a moment, losing rhythm entirely. Lance's sword collided, making a sound like two cymbals meeting, and Keith's blade went flying in a wide arc out of his hand. Lance stood there for a moment, entirely shocked. Clearly he hadn't expected to actually be able to disarm Keith. Keith hadn't expected it either. And it wouldn't have happened, Keith cursed himself, if he had been paying attention to the fight instead of daydreaming.

Lance finally recovered from the shock and let out a cheer. "I…beat…you…I beat you!"

"It was a lucky hit."

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"It was skill!" Lance protested. "I am the greatest swordsman to ever grace this planet!" Lance did the sort of dance you'd see when a player would make a touchdown. He was teasing Keith, and Keith didn't take too kindly to it.

"Luck, pure and simple." His expression darkened. He was scowling.

"Hahahaha! I'm got you! I'm the better swordsman! Maybe I should call myself samurai."

"Fine." Keith said, scowl on his face. "You got me." His voice came out as a growl. "Think you can do it again?"

It was a threat, and Lance knew that. He stopped his happy dance mid stride. "You're on."

Keith went to collect his sword and they both reset into starting stances. Lance nodded to signal he was ready, and Keith did the same, barely jerking his jaw upward, now entirely focused on the goal.

Keith didn't wait for Lance to strike first.

Keith came at Lance with all the strength and speed that came from years of training. He was a man possessed. The sword came swinging down, and Lance barely managed to parry it in time and was forced backward, losing ground. Keith watched as Lance's eyes widened. He seemed to realize just how much Keith had been holding back in that moment and the sudden fear spurred Keith on.

It didn't take much longer.

Keith let loose a flurry of slashes, spinning himself around as he did so. He stepped close to Lance, parrying his blade with one hand and pushing Lance down with the other. Lance's sword was sent skittering out of his hand as he crashed to the ground, Keith on top of him. Keith's blade came up to Lance's throat, and he held it there.

"I win." Keith said, his voice was coarse, harsh.

Lance's eyes were still wide in his panic. Once again they were both breathing hard. Finally, after a moment Keith released his bayard and his sword disappeared back into its sheath.

Keith didn't move, staring into Lance's eyes, until he saw the panic in his friend's face start to recede. He watched as the look changed into something else, almost like confusion, before the redness from their effort in the duel made its way into Lance's cheeks all of a sudden.

"Can you—you know…move?" Lance said, looking away.

"Wha—oh yeah."

Keith suddenly realized where he was. He was sitting on Lance's stomach, one of his hands still pressing down on Lance's shoulder. He scrambled off of him.

"Sorry." Keith said, as he went to stand up.

"—t's fine." Lance's voice was higher than normal, he didn't move to stand up, just stayed lying on the ground, using one of his hands to wipe some of the sweat off of his face.

Keith moved over to him, holding out a hand to help him up.

Lance looked at Keith's hand for a moment, like he was afraid of it for some reason. Keith couldn't puzzle out the expression Lance was giving it exactly. Lance shook whatever he was thinking out of his brain, and grabbed Keith's hand allowing himself to be pulled back up to standing.

"Thanks—you know—for sparing with me." Lance said. He was brushing his hand through his hair, trying to smooth it out.

"Yeah, no problem." Dare Keith even think it, Lance looked sort of…cute...with his hand running through his hair? Keith shook the thought out of his brain this time. "Listen, you've clearly been practicing, and you've gotten pretty good, but nothing beats a real partner so call me next time you want to spar."

"Yeah." Lance's face broke into a smile. "Yeah, yeah! I'd like that."

Keith smiled at Lance, glad they were making some sort of headway into getting back to normal at last.

"Ugh."' Lance said, sniffing himself. "I've got to hit the showers."

Keith thought about joining Lance, but at the last moment decided against it. "I'm going to stay and train some more."

"Yeah." Lance said, blushing to himself once more before turning away.

What Keith thought had been him and Lance getting back into a rhythm had apparently been anything but that. He'd come down into the mess hall, happy to be eating regular human food again—no offence to Hunk, but nothing beat having something as simple as mashed potatoes and steak with gravy after years in space eating green food goo—and as soon as he'd spot the table of the other paladins Lance found some reason to excuse himself.

The first time it happened, Keith hadn't really given it much thought. He just assumed that Lance had already finished eating and was busy with some work for the Garrison or something. The other paladins were still at the table, so he could talk to them, he'd have more opportunities to catch up with Lance later.

The second time set of Keith's radar a bit. Lance left the table with an almost full tray of food, rushing out of the mess hall before Keith could even say one word to him.

"That was weird." Keith said to Hunk, hoping Hunk would enlighten him.

Hunk merely shrugged, going back to eating his own food.

The third time it happened, Keith knew something was up. He wouldn't take a shrug for an answer this time.

He hissed at Hunk. "Is Lance avoiding me?"

Hunk tried to shrug again, but something in Keith's eye must have warned him not to and he swallowed whatever food he'd just shoveled into his mouth before speaking. "I honestly don't know, dude. Lance hasn't told me anything was up, but it definitely looks like he's avoiding you for some reason. What happened the last time you were together?"

Keith thought back to the fight they'd had just the day before. "We were sparring. He wanted to practice his sword technique."

"Did he seem weird to you when he left."

"Not any weirder than usual."

Hunk scowled at Keith until Keith corrected himself.

"No! He didn't seem weird."

"Then I really don't know what to tell you."

Keith was left to puzzle about it for the rest of the day. He went to train, hoping he'd find Lance there. The training deck was empty. Keith waited by fighting some floating orbs, but his focus wasn't on the fight, and one of the orbs ended up shocking him.

"Ouch!" He said, taking out his anger, by cleaving it in two with one blow.

He left the the deck shortly after, not even bothering to shower. Keith thought about stopping by Lance's room, but he didn't have a reason, and he didn't know if Lance would be there anyway.

Keith sighed and turned back toward the hallway to his room. He'd meet up with Lance sooner or later, and he'd find a way to confront him then.

Keith heard footsteps beside him. He looked over to see Cosmo following him. He'd made up with the dog after his sparring match with Lance, but that still didn't make Keith particularly happy with him.

"This is all your fault, you know." Keith said, shaking his head.

Cosmo tilted his head at him, looking confused.

"If you hadn't have teleported me to Lance we wouldn't have had our fight, and then…I don't know…things would have been the same as they were. We wouldn't have had our rhythm back, but Lance wouldn't be completely ignoring me. This—" Keith gestured to the surrounding air. "—this is worse!"

Keith stopped in the middle of the hallway, looking at Cosmo expectantly. Cosmo merely tilted his head the other direction.

Keith sighed, rolling his eyes. Of course the wolf wasn't gonna understand him. Completely pointless.

He turned back to stomping down the hallway. He heard Cosmo start to follow him again, before he felt Cosmo's fur rustling against his leg. Keith put his hand down to give him a scratch behind the ears.

"I'm sorry. I know it's not really your fault. I—"

With a cracking sound he felt himself teleport. Keith looked around himself, disoriented by the darkness that suddenly surrounded him. He blinked his eyes, trying to get them to adjust to the dim light.

He was in some sort of empty storage locker. Nothing and no one else was inside. Keith looked at Cosmo, puzzled before with another cracking sound the wolf was gone again.

"Cosmo!" Keith yelled, as though he could hear him. "What did you do this time?!"

Not having anything else to do, Keith looked around himself. The entire locker was only about five feet by five feet. There was enough room to stand, sit, and lie down so long as he did so on the diagonal. The walls were concrete, except for one. It was a metal grate, that would have been used for the door, had anyone needed to get inside.

Keith tested it, pulling up from the bottom. It didn't budge. He was locked in until someone on the outside came to rescue him or until Cosmo decided to take pity and come back.

With a cracking sound, Keith looked over his shoulder to see a very disoriented looking Lance, blinking his eyes in confusion, and his wolf, standing there, wagging his tail as though somehow pleased with himself.

"Oh no you don't!" Keith charged at Cosmo, trying to grab him.

Just before his fingertips could meet, Cosmo vanished with another crack and Keith tumbled towards the empty space, reaching nothing but air. He slip into the wall, his face slamming into it before he could stop himself.

"Keith?" Lance asked, still blinking his eyes, trying to get them to adjust just like Keith had a moment ago.

"Yeah." Keith said, groaning and rubbing his face. He decided to stay on the ground, sitting with his back against the wall.

"Was that Cosmo?"

"Yeah."

"Where are we?" Lance looked around, his eyes finally adjusted enough to see the small space around them.

"Not sure exactly. Some sort of storage unit though."

"And the door?" Lance pointed at the grate.

"Locked."

Lance furrowed his brow. He took the step over towards the grate and tried to pull it from the bottom, just as Keith had done. He grunted in his attempt.

It didn't move.

"I just told you it was locked."

Lance grunted again, as though by sheer willpower he could change the facts. Finally he gave up, sliding down the wall opposite Keith and sitting on the cold concrete floor.

"So…" Lance said, refusing to look Keith in the eye. "What did you do to Cosmo this time?"

"I didn't do anything! I apologized and everything." Keith crossed his arms, frustrated. "Maybe this is your fault! Why don't we ask what you did to Cosmo?"

"I didn't do anything to your dog!"

"See! Maybe that's it! Maybe the reason he keeps torturing us is because he's not a dog—he's a wolf!"

"So this is my fault, somehow? He's a creature from space. He's not really a wolf, he's not really a dog, he's an alien! Why would he care what he's called. I just think he's cute and fluffy!" Lance huffed for breath after his tirade, crossing his own arms.

Keith huffed out a sigh too, looking away. He didn't want to argue with Lance, not really. He felt the words coming before he could stop them. "Why are you avoiding me?"

"Wow, kind of out of nowhere." Lance peeked an eye over to look at Keith.

"No, you know what, it's not." Keith said, avoiding Lance's eyes for the moment. "I was brought here after complaining to Cosmo that you were avoiding me. Maybe the reason we're both here is that he just wants us to get along."

"That seems kind of silly for a space dog to get involved in. It's not his business."

"Well it is my business. We've been distant since I got back, then a day ago during training I thought we were finally getting along again."

"I don't know why it bothers you so much, it's your own fault!" Lance's voice raised in volume.

"What is that supposed to mean?!"

"It means you changed! You're the one who's different ever since you got back from the quantum abyss!" Lance's voice got louder again, but as soon as he had finished speaking he huffed into silence, reluctant to say any more.

"Lance, of course I'm different. I was there for three years! What do you expect?"

Lance's arms were crossed, his body was as turned away from Keith as it could be in the tiny space. He did say anything for a moment, and when he finally spoke his voice was too even, too quiet, sounding close to tears. "I expect you to believe in me the way I believe in you."

The words knocked the wind out of Keith's chest. Anything he had thought to say dropped away. "Lance…"

"No. You're Voltron's leader, but you don't trust us enough to rely on us when making plans or deciding what's best for the future. You just go running off every time you think there's something important to do. Was I wrong, Keith? Should I not have believed in you?"

Keith's voice was weak, strained. "I'm here now. Please, Lance, you're my right hand. Help me become a better leader."

"I want to…but you keep pushing me away. I…" Lance's voice stuttered, as emotion began to well in his throat. "I…know I'm not the best paladin. I'm not a science genius like Hunk and Pidge. I don't know all sorts of things about space and Altea like Coran and Allura. I poured all of my heart into being the greatest pilot from the time I was a kid, but I'm not even close to as good as you and Shiro. I know—I know I can be goofy and distracting and unfocused and—I know that you're sick of that—I—I would leave Voltron if you asked."

"Lance…" Keith reached for him, placing a hand on his shoulder. Lance shuddered at his touch, but didn't pull away. "That's not true at all. I'm sorry. This is all my fault. I shouldn't have been so hard on you since I got back. You're a great paladin…and the only person I'd ever want as my right hand man."

Lance turned his head, finally looking at Keith in the eye. There was so much raw emotion at the surface of those eyes. As Keith looked at them he felt like he could see every bit of pain and sadness Lance had ever experienced. He fell, searching through Lance's eyes for something, he wasn't even sure exactly what.

Keith placed his other hand gently on Lance's cheek, so that he wouldn't try to turn away. He leaned in close.

A flicker came over Lance's face, before it suddenly grew warm under Keith's hands. "Oh yeah…that's the other problem."

Lance pulled away from Keith's grasp, standing up in the tiny room. Keith watched him pace for a second before he began to bang on the door. "Help! Anyone? We're stuck in here!"

Keith was at a loss for what Lance was talking about, once again he'd felt like they'd bridged the distance between them, only to have Lance pull away at the last moment and wreck any progress.

"Lance, it's pointless, sit down." Keith commanded, not wanting to spend the next hour with someone yelling and banging on the door. "Cosmo will come back for us eventually."

"No!" Lance yelled. He had begun to pant, breathing shallow, panic induced breaths. "I need to get out of here. I—I—I can't breathe."

Keith saw what was happening and stood up, grabbing Lance on each side of his face, and forcing him to focus again. "Count to five!"

Lance looked shocked at Keith's sudden direction. He opened and closed his mouth for a second, no sound coming out.

"Lance, count to five."

That time he listened. Keith could see the thoughts flicker across Lance's eyes again.

"Good." Keith continued. "Now take a breath in, slowly, counting to seven."

The breath was shaky, but Lance managed it.

"Hold that for another four seconds—good. Now breath out slow."

They did that for another round until Lance was calm once more.

Once again Keith sat down on the floor, pulling at Lance's wrist to follow. "Now sit down."

Lance did. He slid weakly down the wall to sit next to Keith. He didn't bother to remove his hand from Keith's either.

"What was that?" Keith asked him after a beat.

"I don't know. Panic attack?"

Keith shook his head. "I've seen you fly into a horde of Galra pilots without even sweating. What could possibly cause you to have a panic attack here?"

Lance shrugged, pulling his knees close to his chest.

"Lance…" Keith tried again, his voice softer this time. "Seriously, just tell me what's going on. Earlier you told me that I'd changed, and it was my fault we'd pulled away from each other. But right now? This is entirely on you."

Lance chuckled into his knees. "You're going to laugh at me."

"Lance, I always laugh at you."

"It's just…the uh, the small space kind of freaks me out?"

"Oh…like claustrophobia?"

"Yeah, like that. It's been happening ever since the airlock."

No other explanation was needed for Keith to remember just what Lance was talking about. It had happened when Sendak had corrupted the Castle for a while, and they'd each had to deal with malfunctioning technology.

Keith wasn't really a hugger. He had never been the person to see a friend in school and immediately want to run up to them and give them a big hug. To be fair he hadn't really had any friends in school, but even so. Lance, though, he was definitely the sort of person who responded to that sort of closeness, a physical closeness to represent an emotional one. Only for Lance, Keith could put away his own personal feelings on the matter, and lean in to hold his friend close. Keith was surprised just how easy it was to forgo his own personal bubble for someone like Lance. He pulled his hand out of Lance's and wrapped it around his shoulder instead, pulling Lance close.

"It'll be alright, okay? We won't run out of air or anything. I promise."

Lance settled in to Keith's shoulder.

They sat like that for a good few minutes, the time ticking away. Keith watched out of the corner of his eye as Lance turned his face to look at him. He studied Keith for a few moments, then turned away, knitting his eyebrows together.

Thoughts raced through Keith's mind as he tried to think of something to break the silence. Maybe he shouldn't break the silence. But he wanted to know just what was going on in Lance's head, and then he realized that he'd never actually gotten his original question answered.

"Soo…" Keith finally said. "Why were you avoiding me?"

Lance tensed in Keith's arms. "I thought we already talked about this."

"No, I'm pretty sure you never answered my question."

"Sure I did…"

"Lance."

Lance pulled away from Keith. Flapping his hand flippantly in the air. "No, nope, no. No-n-no-n-n-nope. Definitely answered it."

"Lance!"

"It was right between when I was complaining about your leadership style and you were telling me I was the best right hand man. That I answered it. Your question that is. Yep." A rosy undertone entered Lance's cheeks.

"Lance, give me a real answer." Keith grabbed Lance again, this time sticking one hand on either side of his face and forcing Lance to meet his eyes. He wasn't going to let go until Lance told him what was going on. He was determined.

Lance met Keith's eyes, then looked away, looking around the room for a moment, before looking into Keith's eyes again. Lance's flush got darker, the skin under Keith's fingertips was too warm.

With strength Keith wasn't expecting Lance wrenched himself free and scrambled backward. "Okay! Okay-okay!" He said, covering his face. "Quiznak this is so awkward! Uagh!"

Keith watched him, a bemused expression crossing his face. Lance was so ridiculous sometimes, so over dramatic. Keith's lips twitched in a small smile watching how flustered Lance had become.

"I—I…ugh…" Lance could barely let out a coherent word. "I…uh…I might have gotten a bit of a crush on you."

Red flooded Lance's face suddenly, going all the way up to the tips of his ears.

"Oh." Keith said. Of all the things he was expecting, that wasn't one of them. Keith looked away, thinking. "Oh…"

"Quiznak! I know it's so stupid. I'm sorry. It was just—just—when you got back and you just looked so much stronger all of a sudden—and—and—grizzled—and I don't know, I wasn't expecting it…and I thought I could ignore it. But then when we were sparring and you—you just—you ended on top of me…" Lance's face was buried in his hands, to the point his words had become muffled. "Ohhh…quiznak."

It was Keith's turn to turn bright red. Every touch he'd shared with Lance over the past few days came flooding back to his memory. "I…I thought you liked Allura…"

"I did…I do…I don't know! It's just—I—quiznak, just kill me now!"

Silence fell over the room for a second.

But then Keith couldn't help it. He started to laugh. They started small, chuckles in his jaw, turning into larger guffaws as they moved into his chest a moment later. He rolled back onto the floor, the laughs coming out in shrieking amusement. Tears flooded Keith's eyes.

Lance looked up at him, horrified. "Keith! I know this is funny, but please! For my own dignity, would you please stop laughing!"

"I…can't…t's to funny."

"Keith! Please!"

Keith pushed himself back off the floor to a sitting position, laughter now receding back into chuckles. "No…it's just—haven't you noticed?"

"What?—Noticed what?"

Keith leaned himself towards Lance, grabbing hold of one of his shoulders. "I've had a crush on you since the Garrison."

Lance tried to pull back in his shock, but Keith's arm held him there. "Wha—but—b—but that would mean—"

"Yeah! That you're an idiot!" Keith leaned in towards Lance. Keith paused, less than an inch from their lips meeting, wanting to test it out, wanting to make sure. Lance pulled himself up to meet him the rest of the way.

Lance wrapped his arms around Keith's head and pulled him forward, crushing back against the floor.

The kiss ended sooner than either of them would have liked. It couldn't be helped though, they were both laughing too hard.

Lance kissed Keith in between laughs, when he could, but eventually they both ended up side by side lying on the diagonal of a storage unit, laughing their heads off. Tears running down their faces.

"Wow, I really am an idiot. How did I not know?"

"I wasn't about to tell you. I thought you liked Allura! Maybe not as much of an idiot after all."

"So what now?" Lance asked, pulling his hands behind his head.

"I guess we just wait for Cosmo to come and get us."

Lance pulled one of the arms behind his head to poke Keith hard in the ribs. "I meant about us."

"Ow!" Keith said, wiggling away slightly. "Well that's obvious. We clearly pretend this never happened." Keith shot a coy smile at Lance, teasing him.

"Keith!"

"No! We keep doing what we've always done, and we see where this goes." Keith leaned over and kissed Lance again.

"Hmm…sitting next to each other in the mess hall." Keith kissed him again.

"Extra training sessions." Another kiss.

"Cosmo teleporting us into each other's rooms…' Lance wiggled his eyebrow and winked at Keith before he could kiss him again.

"Now you're thinking."

"Yeah…" Lance relaxed back on the floor. "I like this."

"I like this too."

And with a crack, that startled both boys, Cosmo reappeared.

#

Lance was bothering Hunk in the mess hall the next day.

"Are you ever going to cook for the mess hall? I miss the food goo."

"You miss the goo?" Pidge's voice was incredulous.

"I miss the way Hunk cooked the goo." Lance corrected. He honestly just wanted to be spoiled a bit by his best friend, and felt like he deserved it for—well he wasn't exactly sure what for, he was just excited to have his feelings returned by Keith and wanted something to celebrate. He hadn't yet told either of his friends about Keith, wanting to keep that secret to himself for just a little while longer. So he couldn't exactly tell them why he wanted some incredible edible creation of Hunk's, he could only tell them he wanted it.

Right on cue Keith made his way to their table, his own tray of food in his hands piled high with all sorts of healthy breakfast food. Oatmeal, an apple and an orange—did he really need two different types of fruit—plus a bit of brown sugar to make the oatmeal taste like something other than plain mush.

Lance grimaced at it.

"What?" Keith asked him.

"Don't get all that healthy food near me!'

"It's not all healthy! Look this is just brown sugar! That's hardly what I'd call healthy."

Lance continued his grimace.

"Well I'm sorry that we can't all like fruit flavored frosted-o's."

"Don't judge my breakfast!'

"Well then don't judge mine!" Keith poked Lance in the ribs.

To Hunk and Pidge's surprise, Lance took the poke without retaliation and allowed Keith to sit down next to him. Last they had seen Lance he'd been avoiding Keith something fierce.

"So you two made up then?" Hunk asked.

Lance looked up, a glint shining from his eye. He spoke in a monotone. "What do you mean? I'll never forgive Keith's judgement of my favorite breakfast cereal."

Keith just rolled his eyes.

Hunk took it as confirmation that things on the team were back to normal. He preferred that. They all did. They ate their breakfast in the relative peace of friends who enjoyed irritating each other to no end.

Even though Keith was the last one to arrive, he ended up being the first one to leave.

"I have to get to training." He explained to the others as he rushed off.

Lance was about to ask if he should come too, so that they could work on sword technique together, but Keith had disappeared too fast. Lance felt a bit dejected. He was hoping for more time bonding, and for more time training his sword too, they had been too busy since they got back from the storage unit to even really talk.

Lance finished eating and sighed, trying to figure out just what he was going to do that day. He supposed he could go train too, although maybe that would be weird. Too forward, perhaps? He didn't want to scare Keith off, right after they'd just confessed their feelings for each other. He could always try to get into whatever Hunk and Pidge were trying to do.

Lance looked up at them briefly, before deciding against it. They had already gotten into a deep discussion of whatever sciencey thing they were working on that day, and it was already well over Lance's head, whatever it was.

Lance looked around, trying to find some piece of inspiration.

He could visit his family. That was always a good time, it wouldn't feel as nice as a time as he had spent with Keith yesterday, though. Plus they new him too well. He couldn't keep any secrets from them not even if he really wanted. His mom would see it instantly on his face the moment he walked in. Him and Keith was still something he wanted to keep to himself. Not for much longer, it was just too special at the moment to share.

He looked around for another moment before he saw a very familiar snout peeking around the entrance for the mess hall.

It was probably for the best that Cosmo didn't come in, the staff of the Garrison probably wouldn't take too kindly to a space dog hanging around all the food.

"You know what, I'm gonna leave. See you later." He said to Hunk and Pidge.

"Wait, where are you—" Pidge asked him, but Lance was already halfway across the mess hall, much too far away to hear let alone answer the question.

Lance didn't want to look too much in a hurry. He deposited his tray and disappeared through the doors the moment he was able to.

"Alright, Cosmo. Where to now?"

With a crack Lance felt the world around himself shift. He dropped, falling directly into the waiting arms of a smiling Keith.

Lance allowed his head stopped spinning from the disorientation before kissing Keith. He shouldn't have bothered though, there was no point in clearing his head in the end.

The kiss just made the world spin even faster.

* * *

 **A/N** : Ahhh! I had so much fun writing this! I wanted to get this complete before December and I'm happy to say I did it!

Also if the idea of Cosmo teleporting the paladins into hilarious situations strikes your fancy enough to want to write about it PLEASE DO! I want to read more fics with this concept! It could be taken in so many different directions, most of which are hilarious!

So anyway time to shamelessly promote myself!

If you like my stuff or if you'd like to chat (I'd love to talk to you!) you can follow me on my tumblr. Same name! (SeeminglyCaptivating) I occasionally post klance and other fandomy type stuff, but mostly it's just me being weird. If that interests you then be my guest and follow me!

Elsewise you can follow my insta or twitter thechargrey

Keep being awesome my lovelies!

BYEE!


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